Training for New Recruits to Norfolk Island Emergency Volunteers Team

Norfolk Island’s Red Cross Emergency Support Volunteers will be running a training course for new team members early in May. If you are thinking about joining a worthwhile organisation, now is the time to reach out and get prepared to help the community.

Recent changes have been made by Red Cross Australia to the recruitment process. We will be holding an information session on Monday 16 May from 5.30 PM. This session covers how Red Cross helps with community emergencies, and explains the steps to becoming a volunteer including the application process.

New recruits then complete two online modules - Introduction to Emergency Services and Introduction to Psychological First Aid which are mandatory for all volunteers. Our local team will be holding two workshop sessions later in May so our new recruits can work together, with the support of our current team members, to complete the modules. This is then followed by a one-day skills training workshop in Psychological First Aid. We are hoping to have at least one senior trainer from Red Cross NSW coming over to assist with this training day.

With the natural disasters of the past couple of years, Red Cross has played a pivotal role in helping communities across Australia cope with and recover from the trauma. Local volunteers are an essential part of overall emergency management, especially in a remote community such as ours where outside support could be significantly delayed if we faced a major disaster. Being well trained ensures that we can act quickly, effectively and responsively in a way that limits the devastating impact of any emergency.

Our local team is also working towards running more community education sessions aimed at being better prepared for responding to any emergency, whether just in your household or the community more broadly. This includes workshops on preparing for climate change.

To register for the training or find out more about your local Red Cross Emergency Support Team please call Kate Lemerle (Team Convenor) on 52112 or email bushtucka@iinet.net.au